Originally published in 1896
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003

A few months after the battle between the "Hornet"
and the " Peacock," Lawrence was again the
hero of a great sea fight. The coast of New England
was blockaded by a British fleet, and in the
harbor of Boston lay the frigate "Chesapeake," commanded
by Captain Lawrence. He had been recently
appointed to this vessel, and in fact had been in command
only ten days when he received a challenge to
fight a naval duel.

This proposition came from the captain of the British
frigate "Shannon," one of the blockading fleet,
about the same size and strength as the "Chesapeake."
The British captain sent a very polite letter to Captain
Lawrence; for when people propose to fight duels,
whether on land or sea, they are always extremely
courteous before they begin to try to kill each other.
The British captain said, that, as he understood the
"Chesapeake" was now ready to go to sea, he would
like her to come out and fight the "Shannon" for the
honor of their respective flags. He offered the American
captain choice of fighting ground inside of certain
limits, and promised that the rest of the British fleet
should keep far away, so that Captain Lawrence need
have no fear of being troubled by any vessel except
the "Shannon."

When Captain Lawrence read this challenge, he was
as willing to go out and fight the duel as the British
captain was anxious to have him do so; but he knew
that his vessel was not nearly so well prepared as
was the "Shannon." The British ship had been at sea
for a long time, she was manned by a crew of brave
sailors, and her captain was well acquainted with his
ship and his men.

The case was very different with the "Chesapeake."
Lawrence had been on board scarcely long enough to
find out what sort of a ship she was, but he had been
on board long enough to discover that her crew was
a very poor one. Many of them were Portuguese,
they had not been well drilled, and, worse than that,
they did not want to fight. Few of them had been
in the service long enough to have a taste for naval
warfare; and if they had had their way, they would
have let the "Shannon" lie outside until her captain
grew gray, before they would go out and accept his
challenge. The harbor was much more to their mind.

But Captain Lawrence had no such idea. He accepted
the challenge without hesitation, and prepared
to go out and fight the duel. He would have been
glad enough if he had had a good crew, but he would
do his best with the crew he had. He put his ship
in fighting trim, and his men in the best order possible,
and early on a summer afternoon the "Chesapeake"
went out to meet the "Shannon," which was boldly
flying the flag of St. George.

In those days, when men-of-war, as well as all other
ships, were sailing vessels, the tactics of naval combats
were very different from what they are now. Each of
the commanders of vessels was obliged to think, not
only of what his enemy was about, but what the wind
was about. A steamer can take what position she
pleases; she can steam far away from her enemy, or
she can use her long-range guns, or dash down upon
her to break in her sides with her ram. But in the
old sailing times, maneuvers were very much more
difficult, and if the winds ever desired to stop a sea
fight, it often happened that they could do it simply
by dying away themselves.

The two ships sailed this way and that, each trying
to get a position which would be good for herself and
bad for the other; and at last, when they were very
close, so near that their captains might have talked
with each other, their cannon began to speak. From
their mouths came rolling of thunder. From each
ship, volleys of great shot swept the decks of the
other, while the rattle of musketry became incessant.
This tremendous fire was kept up for nearly ten minutes,
and in this short time the "Chesapeake" lost
nearly one hundred men, killed and wounded, on her
upper deck.

Still she had the best of the fight, for in a few
minutes she would have taken a position in which she
could have raked the decks of the enemy. But unfortunately
some of her rigging was shot away, and she
could not take advantage of the wind, and did not obey
her helm. Nothing could be worse than this; for, with
sails flapping wildly in the wind, precision of sailing,
so necessary in a sea fight, was absolutely impossible.
But not only was the "Chesapeake" unable to take
the position she wanted, but she could not get out
of the way, and she drifted against the "Shannon;"
and the rigging of the two vessels became entangled,
with the "Chesapeake" exposed to the full fire of the
guns of the other ship. In this case there was only
one thing to be done, and Captain Lawrence was the
brave man to do it. He must board the "Shannon,"
and he and his men must fight her captain and his
men hand to hand. There was no use trying to fight
any longer with the "Chesapeake's" cannon.

Instantly Lawrence ordered the boarders to be called
on deck, and he was ready to put himself at their head
and dash on board the " Shannon." He was slightly
wounded, but he did not care for that. But now
came another misfortune. The man who should have
called the boarders to action by the roll of the drum
was not on duty, and the bugler was ordered to sound
the call. He was so frightened by this awful fight
that he ran and hid himself, and when he was pulled
out from his retreat, he had not breath enough to blow
his bugle. Some of the men were sent below to shout
for the boarders and call them on deck,-a very slow
procedure at such a time; but before any of them
arrived, the brave Lawrence was stretched upon the
deck by a musket ball.

The captain of the "Chesapeake" was not immediately
killed, but he was mortally wounded ; and when
he was carried below, he showed that, near death as
he was, he was still the bravest man on board. He
thought nothing of himself, he thought only of his
country and his ship; and his last orders were, "Don't
give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks."

But it was
not much use
trying to fight
the "Shannon" any
longer; there were no officers on the deck of the
"Chesapeake," except two midshipmen, and the British
captain saw that he had a good chance to board
his enemy. So his crew were soon clambering over
the sides of the American vessel. Some wounded
officers rushed up from below to help repel this attack.
Many of the American sailors fought bravely even at
these great odds; but some of the crew, especially the
Portuguese, basely deserted their comrades and hurried
below. The fight on the deck of the "Chesapeake"
was not a long one; and very soon the stars
and stripes were hauled down from her masthead, and
the British colors hoisted in their place.

So ended the great duel between the "Chesapeake"
and the "Shannon," and the last words of the brave
Lawrence were never forgotten. "Don't give up the
ship" became the watchword of the navy.

After this bloody sea fight, which lasted only fifteen
minutes, but in which nearly two hundred and fifty
men were killed and wounded, the "Shannon" sailed
away for Halifax, taking with her the "Chesapeake,"
with the dead body of its brave commander on board.
When the two vessels entered the harbor, Lawrence
lay upon the quarter-deck, wrapped in the great flag
of the "Chesapeake," while all the men on the British
vessels in the harbor manned their yards, and
shouted a wild welcome to the victorious "Shannon."
But the flag which floated from the masthead of the
British frigate held no more honorable position than
that which covered the dead body of the American
hero.

Authorities: "History of the United States Navy." J. F.
Cooper.
"Field Book of the Revolution." B. J. Lossing.